Law Commons^™

Texas' New Advance Directives Act, Thomas Wm. Mayo

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Adoption In The Progressive Era: Preserving, Creating, And Re-Creating Families, Joanna L. Grossman, Chris Guthrie

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Ranking Specialized Law Reviews: A Methodological Critique, Gregory S. Crespi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Some Keys To The Nba Lockout, Grant M. Hayden

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This article addresses two central issues regarding the 1998-99 National Basketball Association (“NBA”) lockout: 1) its impact on labor law doctrine and 2) what it reveals about the state of labor relations in the United States. The author concludes that, while the use of the traditional lockout weapon did not break any new ground in the area of labor law, the unique attributes of the NBA labor dispute provide insight into the condition of the American labor movement and public perceptions of unions. In particular, the author notes that the NBA lockout highlights both the dramatic differences in the power …

Recent Significant Cases Affecting Farmout Agreements, John S. Lowe

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

As this author observed in 1987, farmors' and farmees' mutual interest in maximizing available tax benefits causes the structure of farmout agreements to be very much the same, or at least fall into discernable patterns. Farmout substantive provisions, however, vary widely. The difference in substantive provisions results in part from the different goals that farmors and farmees seek when they enter into agreements. In part, the differences are reflexive; once one encounters a problem, one drafts to avoid it in the future. In part, also, the differences show the creativity of American businessmen and their lawyers in deal-making.

The cases …

Farmout Agreements And Related Issues, John S. Lowe

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Long Live The Bill Of Rights! Long Live Akhil Reed Amar's The Bill Of Rights!, Lackland H. Bloom Jr.

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Akhil Reed Amar's volume, The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction ("The Bill of Rights"), deserves to sit on every constitutional scholar and lawyer's shelf along with such other contemporary classics as Alexander Bickel's The Least Dangerous Branch, Charles Black's Structure and Relationship in Constitutional Law, John Hart Ely's Democracy and Distrust, and Philip Bobbitt's Constitutional Fate. This book builds on two of the most breathtaking and important law review articles of the past decade-Professor Amar's The Bill of Rights as a Constitution, and The Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. Professor Amar's contributions to constitutional scholarship are of …

Nea V. Finley: A Decision In Search Of A Rationale, Lackland H. Bloom Jr.

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Debate has raged over whether Congress can constitutionally restrict, or at least influence, the ability of the National Endowment for the Arts (“NEA”) to award grants to artists and institutions for the creation or display of art work that a significant segment of the public would consider highly offensive. In the October 1997 Term, the Supreme Court, by an 8-1 margin in NEA v. Finley, upheld section 954(d), a 1991 congressional amendment to the NEA Act that requires the Chairperson of the NEA to ensure that, in establishing regulations and procedures for assessing artistic excellence and artistic merit, “general standards …

Bankruptcy Takings, Julia Patterson Forrester Rogers

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The Takings Clause is a vital consideration in determining the treatment of secured creditors in bankruptcy. This Article will explain why the Takings Clause is relevant and why scholars engaged in the debate over secured credit must consider the constitutionality of their proposals in light of the takings issue. In Part I of the Article, I explore the ways in which current bankruptcy law provides protection and gives deference to property rights. I also discuss certain proposals that would reduce the protection given to secured parties. Part II provides an overview of takings law and discusses some of the cases …

Latinos, Assimilation And The Law: A Philosophical Perspective, George A. Martinez

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Although Latinos have been in the United States for many years, they have not been completely assimilated into mainstream American society. Separate Latino enclaves, as well as unique Latino cultural practices, demonstrate that Latinos have not fully assimilated. This article responds to those who advocate the use of legal means to ensure Latino assimilation. This article argues that one should reject pressure to assimilate, and instead recognize the worth of distinctive cultural traditions of Latinos and other minorities. Moreover, this article uses philosophical literature to designate important limits on the demand for Latinos and others to assimilate into dominant society. …

Philosophical Considerations And The Use Of Narrative In Law, George A. Martinez

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The use of narrative in law raises a number of philosophical/jurisprudential issues. Narrative has been used primarily by critical theorists, including critical race theorists, Latino legal theorists, Asian-American legal theorists, feminist legal theorists, and gay/lesbian legal theorists. They offer narrative as a way to introduce a perspective that is not represented in mainstream legal discourse.

Drawing on philosophy, the author explains the importance of narrative for outsiders and offers responses to some important philosophical or jurisprudential objections to the use of narrative in law. In particular, the author responds to the following claims: (1) the use of narrative is an …

Crossover Dreams: The Roots Of Latcrit Theory In Chicana/O Studies Activism And Scholarship, Kevin R. Johnson, George A. Martinez

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

As the century comes to a close, critical Latina/o theory has branched off from Critical Race Theory. This article considers how this burgeoning body of scholarship finds its roots in a long tradition of Chicana/o activism and scholarship, particularly the work of Chicana/o Studies scholar-activists. In the critical study of issues of enduring significance to the greater Latina/o community, we owe a deep intellectual debt to the generations of scholarship focusing on Chicana/os in the United States.

This praise might strike some knowledgeable observers as odd. Chicana/o Studies developed with an exclusive focus on the subordination of persons of Mexican …

The Limits Of Social Choice Theory: A Defense Of The Voting Rights Act, Grant M. Hayden

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article presents a defense to the challenge that social choice theory presents to voting rights. Arrows theorem, the crown jewel of social choice theory, holds that no voting procedure that meets some minimal conditions of democratic fairness can ensure transitive, meaningful outcomes. The theorem provides a powerful argument against the ability of any court to devise objective vote dilution standards. Because such standards are now a necessary element of claims under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Arrows theorem may be viewed as a fundamental threat to the viability of all such claims. The defense of voting rights …

Crossing The Threshold: Examining The Abatement Of Public Nuisances Within The Home, Mary B. Spector

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The Article suggests an approach courts should use when considering whether to abate a public nuisance within a home that is consistent with the goals and purposes of traditional public nuisance law as well as modern approaches to the regulation of individual rights and property. Part I provides the background for the analysis as it examines the common law origins of public nuisance law and the expansion of the equitable remedy of abatement. It also contrasts the law of public nuisance with the law of civil forfeiture. Although the law of civil forfeiture also permits uncompensated seizure of property connected …

Environmental Ethics And Our Moral Relationship To Future Generations: Future Rights And Present Virtue, Jeffrey M. Gaba

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

A central issue in environmental ethics is characterization of our “moral relationship” to future generations. What, if any, obligations do we owe to the future? How should our present actions be influenced by their impact on the future?

The purpose of this article is to characterize and hopefully clarify certain aspects of this “moral relationship.” First, the article identifies those distinctive qualities that distinguish a moral analysis of our relationship to future generations from the moral analysis that will apply to an assessment of our actions on our own generation. It suggests that the issue of our moral relationship to …

The Recent Asian Financial Crises: Possible Lessons And Implications For South Africa, Joseph J. Norton

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Tricky Magic: Blacks As Immigrants And The Paradox Of Foreignness, Lolita Buckner Inniss

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

International Commercial Transactions: 1998, Peter Winship

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.